Take Me Out Of The Dark
by FluffleNeCharka
Summary: There are Rings, death, lies, false Planeteers and betrayals at every turn. There's Avifort, a murderer who used to be Linka. And there's a question raised: when you can't save yourself, who can? Alternate Universe and Normal Universe crossover. Darkfic.
1. Chapter 1

AN: Okay, before going into this fic you should know that this thing really walks the line between T and M. There's a lot of death and violence, even though most of it is implied, and there's World War Three and a heavily implied suicide on top of that. This is pretty much the darkest thing I've ever really done for a kid's show, so you should probably consider yourself warned for a pessimistic, dystopic, dictator-ruled society.

And yes, there will be LinkaWheeler, but only between each universe's respective Linkas and Wheelers. Otherwise it'd be very creepy and disturbing. (Well, more so than this thing already is.) I'd like to think that the way I deal with the pairing given the premise of the fic is different than the standard Slap Slap Kiss thing a lot of authors do. It should also be noted this chapter is more of an introduction than anything else, and future chapters will be a lot better.

I own nothing, except the concept of ES, which I'm not too proud of owning, actually.

* * *

There was blood soaking into her boots, but Linka Avifort did not even begin to register that fact.

The soft squishing sound that came with each step did not sound in her ears. The broken and bloodied bodies lying around her did not dawn on her, nor did the expected feeling of horror come. The greetings of several soldiers that walked by barely warranted a nod. Her navy blue eyes were seeking out the one body she needed to see here, searching for a Negro body among Caucasians. White men and women littered the streets; now that this part of Africa was under USSR rule, everyone was expendable, not just blacks. She saw the gambit from poor to rich in those that lay around her, child to adult, but not the one she needed to see.

He was actually alive, something that startled her. They hadn't had the same take on it when they'd taken over Korea; the girl with the water ring had been shot in the ensuing chaos on accident. Here, however, it had been organized enough that only those close to him was killed, leaving the bearing of the earth ring alive if shell-shocked and mind blown. The soldiers had him at gunpoint, where he sat shaking violently with barely contained sobs. They had broken him when they had destroyed his home, and she knew from a mere glance that they'd gone too far. But after the disaster with the American, she was in no mood for stealth missions and covert interrogations. At least this way, nothing could backfire because the plan of capturing him had been as simply as Destroy, Pillage, Repeat.

His eyes flickered in recognition. They had met before, last year, when they had formed the Planeteers and summoned Captain Planet. But in under a month, their respective countries pulled them back home. Political tensions were simply too high during World War Three; the world itself had protested them. Nowadays, of course, her country was stronger than any other. That was why she was here, why his town had just been slaughtered before his eyes. He eyed the rings on her fingers warily.

Wind. Water. Fire.

She stood before him rigidly, and dismissed the soldiers with a stiff nod. He would never kill anyone, even when he really should have. She was safer in her enemy's presence right now than she had ever been in the company of the hundreds of soldiers that stood outside. He was dressed in a too large shirt and baggy pants, without shoes. Dirt coated him, as if he'd been out and about in the African brush for a long time after seeing her last. His skin, blacker than it had ever been in his life, supported this theory as well. His charcoal colored eyes flickered over her body, taking in the black uniform trimmed in red, the muscles that lay beneath the fabric that she'd developed lately. The USSR's victory in World War Three had been kind to her.

"Kwame," she spoke stiffly, to break the silence. "I-"

"Do you care?" he asked her abruptly. "Do you even _care_ when you order this kind of massacre, this destruction? Do you even _know_ how angry I am right now? There are not words, Avifort."

"My name is Linka."

"No," Kwame snapped, still shaking, "Linka was an eleven year old girl who taught me how to swim and held Ma-Ti during a thunderstorm. Avifort – _you_ are a twelve-year-old drunk on power, nothing more. You are a monster."

She could have let herself feel annoyance, anger, indignation or even hurt at that statement. But there was a sharp sting in her neck, and the moment passed. She stared at him coldly. In that moment he must surely have sensed he was not getting through to her, for in her eyes there was no soul or thought, merely emptiness. It repulsed him, and he shuddered all over, comforting himself with the knowledge that this wasn't her. She was not all there, or even there remotely now. Briefly, his eyes closed, knowing what was coming. When her next statement came, it was delivered robotically, the words of a machine atop the world to a mere disposable human, because Linka was long gone.

"Will you join us, Kwame?"

The fifthteen-year-old opened his eyes and stared at her in disbelief. She'd offered him this before, and his refusal had resulted in this massacre, among many others in the search for him. He could flee from her, and overpower her with earth, but she would merely send others after him. The USSR had half of Africa, all of former India and all of China, Korea and Japan under their control. He could run as far as he could and never get far enough away. He could fight as hard as he could and lose to their sheer numbers. And all the while they would do _this_, this embodiment of hell on Earth, to everyone who dared to even be near him. He could not refuse. But he would never join. He would not become Avifort. He slid the ring off his finger and held out to her, hands shaking. He was offering her more power, making the USSR's human superweapon that much more deadly. He shook, as he had never shook before, and he fought down the urge to cry.

She took it, sliding it onto her left hand where the wind ring lay. As she turned to go, however, she did not leave fast enough to miss him swipe the gun from her pocket, and in one swift moment put in an end to the lose-lose-lose situation he had found himself in.

The emotional suppressor on her brain stem fought it down, or tried to, but Linka's eyes still went wide in horror and she still felt sick. Suddenly it all came crashing down on her. The bodies. The blood she was now kneeling in. Her friend. He was – he had been – now he was gone? A blinding wave of pain slammed through her, knocking her to her knees as she held herself tightly. Eventually the ES worked its way through it, as soldiers rushed over to her. Even as they asked her if she was fine, it all flowed away from her conscious mind. Boy. Did not comply. Dead. She stood, not noticing the blood smeared all over her, and waved off their concerns, moving forward coldly.

Now to go train in her latest element in St. Petersburg for a bit, and hit her last target...

Ma-Ti.


	2. Chapter 2

AN: Thanks for the reviews! I didn't expect two so fast! Anyway, this chapter represents more of the standard length of chapters in this fanfic, as well as yet more character death. In case you haven't caught on, I've taken a few liberties with the AU!Planeteers appearances and ages to make it so that it's not a stereotypical mirror universe, so if you see me calling an AUverse character something slightly different or saying they have slightly different appearances, be aware it's sort of intentional. (I'm trying to avoid the Evil Twin of Character A plotline a lot of superhero fanfics run with.) Also, for the sake of my own sanity, once the group meets up with Linka Avifort, I'm just going to refer to her as Avifort as much as I can to avoid confusing you guys as to who's who. Just a heads up.

Disclaimer: Linka Avifort and the ES are my ideas, based upon the original Planeteers canon owned by Cartoon Network. I own nothing.

* * *

Her place in St. Petersburg was truly beautiful.

Wind was hers before this whole nightmare got out of control, before they put the ES in her to shut her off like a puppet whenever she felt any emotion. In those days, she had asked for something beautiful, back when she genuinely believed they'd called her there to advise on environmental matters. The two story building was hardly a mansion, but it was a far cry from what most people now lived in. The gray, slab rock outside was matched by gray bricks inside, with large, intricate windows in smokey glass in every room. It was costing a fortune to heat, but they didn't mind for her. Back in those days it had bothered her. Not now.

There was nothing to her now as she dropped her bloodied jacket on the floor, shed her boots by her bedroom's entry, and pulled her blood soaked pants off of her with slight annoyance for the stains. There were blood stains across her legs and chest, where it had soaked in, but they were long dried and she fell gratefully into bed regardless. Avifort did not dream, a side effect of the ES that she embraced gladly. After she had heard of Gi's death, she had more than a few nightmares before they managed to fix her. The ES kept away any form of guilt she could have had from that event, and even Kwame's blood on her body did not register as anything other than a slight stiffening sensation where it lay. She truly was not all there.

Drawing the thick curtains closed with her wind ring, she basked in the near total darkness. Here, on a large bed that had more blankets than she could ever need, she was not a weapon. She was merely at rest, blissfully so, for when she was tired she could feel herself begin to think less and less. The feeling of rest, true rest after hours of car rides, flying, and using her powers was something that she felt was her last bit of emotion. The soft feeling of fabric against her cheek was familiar, as was the smell of her old blankets and the way the heater whirred softly on the floor. As she felt her breathing slow, she realized briefly that nearly everyone she had been friends with was dead, and with Ma-Ti's ring she would be able to summon Captain Planet all by herself.

The question then was whether or not the man would obey her. He had to, of course, as she held the rings that formed him, but theoretically he still had free will. He could resist her decimation of the planet, the USSR's plans to cut off hundreds of rivers and build damns and destroy forests and build in Siberia the biggest waste dump known to man. These were things she would not have condoned as a Planeteer. Still, if he resister, all that would mean was that she would do it herself. With the last ring, manipulation of those around her to the will of the USSR would be easy. They would let her do whatever she wanted, and she would let the USSR use her for whatever they wanted.

She was a weapon that never would outlive its usefulness. She was always needed, able to do amazing things single handedly when before the only option was a bundle of operatives. She could ruin whole cities to get across the message of No Second Chances, also affectionately called the Anti-Tolerance Rule by commoners. Her usefulness extended to being anything she needed to be. An assassin, a firefighter, a one person flood control measure, a weapon, a spy, an environmental nightmare all in one. She was nothing more than something to be used b her superiors – she learned that long ago – but without emotions there was no resistance to this train of thought.

She couldn't fight back. Understand that before passing judgment upon dear little Avifort: the girl was not able to fight back to save her life, or even her friends lives. Any trace of such thought resulted in a disrupting shock to stop it midway through. Any guilt, anger, shame or outrage was removed and sometimes stopped from happening outright by the ES. Any actions not allowed in the ES's programming would be stopped via unconsciousness. This was to say nothing of the one hundred twenty six hours of hypnosis, brainwashed, propaganda forcing and blatant manipulation they did. The girl thought that she was doing this to help the people of the USSR. They needed her. She was a hero, a helper and friend to all she saw around her. She also thought of herself as less than a person, some kind of puppet, a mentality that they'd put in specifically to keep people from appealing to her morality. Avifort was too lost in these mental prisons to even start to fight against this insanity. The pollution and massacres that were spreading like wildfire were beyond her power to either stop or start at this point.

She struggled through the haze her ES was putting her through, to pull back memories it worked hard at suppressing. Captain Planet… Would he like her? Would he be able to stand her after all that had happened? She didn't want him to hate her. She loved him like a father – and then pain shot through her head and that train of thought was gone again, replaced by only weariness as she drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Eight year old Ma-Ti had been the youngest out of all the Planeteers.

Even so, he understood the situation clearly. It was hard not to. Avifort was well known for what she did, the power her nation had given her. She was their ultimate, their last and first resort now. He understood that such power came at a cost, a cost he would never be able to pay. Taking her humanity from her was too great a price for the powers she wielded, and he felt nothing but compassion and love for his fallen comrade.

He didn't understand about power, world domination, the Cold War that had led into the last World War. He didn't understand why so many people had to die so that one country could assert its power and make even more people miserable under its rule than before. But he didn't have to. If he thought like that, like everyone else did, he'd just be as cold as they were. He instead focused on understanding Linka, on remembering his past friends as they had been last year, when the world was on hold so they could come together.

Gi, with her motherly tone and warm embrace, had been key in introducing him to everyone, as little Ma-Ti was shy. Kwame had smiled warmly at him, friendly if withdrawn, while Wheeler had ruffled his hair, saying he'd always wanted a little brother. Ma-Ti's heart had swelled at those words, because the American greeted him like a long lost friend. Kwame and Gi hit it off right away. And then there had been Linka, as she was back then, with her charming smile and keen interest in everyone. She sparred with Wheeler and clung to Ma-Ti, sheltering him when danger had arose. In that moment he had felt like he was her child, protected in her embrace. She was so real right then, so corporeal and mortal.

Now she was gone. Ma-Ti would not be like everyone around him and pretend that Avifort and Linka were separate entities. They weren't. The two of them were one person, Linka Avifort, and he knew that somewhere down in there, beneath the layers of apathy, she was still herself. She was still a human being, a person, his friend. His heart ached for her, knowing she was so dead inside against her will. No one deserved that fate. He would not have even wished it on the Planeteer's worst enemies. But he refused to believe that this was permanent, or that this was how the world would end, with three of his friends dead and one a slave to the government. He wouldn't let her live this life anymore, and he'd already told Gaia what he planned to do. Whether or not it was work, no one was sure. All he knew was that he had to try.

He hugged his grandfather with a heavy heart, leaving on foot to meet Linka on the main road through the forest. There would be no hunt for him, no innocents killed to obtain a meeting with him. He came willingly, unarmed, with his ring on his hand. Holding his hands up to indicate surrender, the soldiers lowered their weapons upon seeing him, gesturing for Linka to come forward. She did so coolly, eyeing him with something akin to fondness, though he'd heard she wasn't allowed such emotions anymore. She was an intimidating figure now, with short military cut blonde hair that was nearly white and a knee length black coat, held together with a number of red buckles instead of buttons. That was something of a trademark of the USSR, now. The knee length black boots she currently had her red pants tucked into had similar buckles. The outfit made her look inhuman, a nameless member of the enemy. He shook off such thinking and smiled warmly at her.

"Linka," he said with forced ease, "It is good to see you again. Can we talk?"

"I assume you mean in private?" she asked, and when he nodded, she gave a curt jerk of the head to the soldiers, who shrank back as she neared Ma-Ti. About thirty feet from the USSR's guards was all they were allowed, but she gave it to him. "I'm surprised you did not go into hiding. If you could do it anywhere, this would be it," she said, gesturing toward the rain forest.

He smiled proudly. "The forest is big, and could hide many things. It had regrown well in the past year. But I didn't want to run from my friend."

She gave him a look, not sure how to take that comment. There was a faint buzz from her neck, and he pulled on her shoulder. She turned easily, allowing him to see the full horror of the ES. Her neck had been cut open, and there was a large scar on the back by the base of the spine. Beneath the surface there was a device, pulsing slightly with each breath, that he knew to be the highly experimental ES. It made people's lives shorter, he'd heard, but the USSR hardly cared. Once she had all the rings, she could replaced whenever it was needed. He felt his heart break for her, for the pain she couldn't feel, the things she couldn't do, the tears she couldn't shed, and the while it was killing her. His arms wrapped around her as he drew her close.

"I always thought of you as my big sister, Linka." He murmured into her chest, for that was as high as his head reached. "I always will. I've missed you, and I know I should be angry, but…" Tears streamed down his cheeks freely, "I cannot. I love you like family."

She gasped, and the buzzing in her neck became intense. Her arms clutched around him to steady herself from falling. Her navy blue eyes went wide in pain, and he locked eyes with her. Linka was surfacing, fighting against the machine. Ma-Ti sensed now was the moment to put his plan into action. Taking advantage of the fact that she was leaning on him, he wrapped his arms around her neck, pressing his ring against her neck. She froze, eyes wobbling back and forth as the ES struggled to comprehend an action far beyond its programming. Ma-Ti met her navy blue eyes with his own tawny gold ones, and smiled apologetically.

"Heart."

The ES fought the power coursing through it, beyond it, as all of the long dormant emotions began to resurface. Normal brain chemistry began to form, all the compounds and balance of substances that enable love, compassion, altruism, pain. Serotonin production doubled as her brain activity levels began to rise too fast for the ES to compensate. Memories regulated by the ES were unlocked, accessible though they flashed before her eyes like a nightmare or a series of dreams all at once. She began to shake so violently he had to hold her to him to keep her from falling, and the ES sounded like a jet about to take off, roaring in their ears until finally it stopped outright, unable to keep going. Linka went limp in his arms, like a ragdoll though she was still conscious.

Soldiers were running for him, not daring to shoot the agent they'd put so much work into but clearly aware something had gone wrong. Ma-Ti yelled, "Gaia, now!" and with a flash Avifort's body was gone, leaving only Ma-Ti behind. Pissed, they did not hesitate to open fire, but he'd known all along this was how it would end. His body hit the ground with a thud that he didn't hear. His mind was already going, where he didn't know. All he knew was that he hoped, deep down, that this world could be saved. Not just the environment. The people, too, even the ones that shot him couldn't be blamed for acting as they did. The world was simply too messed up for them to know what was right and wrong anymore. He forgave them as he forgave Linka even in his dying thoughts.

Avifort, however, didn't even comprehend what was happening.

There was pain, mind blowing amounts of fire and ice coursing through her. Everything was hot, everything was cold. She was burning, she was freezing. She did not see what was in front of her in the stunning, paralyzing pain she was in. Her body was disconnected, however, from her mind. Thoughts, whirlwinds of images and words flew before her eyes. She didn't understand them, catching bits and pieces as it rushed by, the blurs indistinguishable from one another. Everything was a blur of color and sound, until soundly it became deaf and blind. She fell into Ma-Ti's arms briefly, aware that she was somehow not there after a moment but too shell-shocked to understand beyond that.

Her body weakened, she crawled until she felt something soft beneath her, and lay there as if dead. She did not comprehend the pavement beneath her, the cardboard she lay on, or the way it was suddenly cool and dry instead of warm and humid. Her eyes were wide open, yet unseeing as she fell into something closer to a coma than a sleep. The ES beeped weakly, putting her under for her own good. It was unable, however, to lock away the memories and feelings that Ma-Ti had unlocked, leaving Avifort more Linka and less Avifort than she'd been in a long time.

A homeless man found her a few hours later, eyes closed in an apparently hellish, nightmare filled sleep. He didn't move the girl, having a soft spot for children, and so she remained there until five hours later, when she sat up abruptly, clutching her head. A string of Russian left her lips, and she stood on shaking legs. Vaguely she realized she was thirsty and hungry, but that would have to wait as she mumbled a broken English apology to the man. He shook his head dismissively, smiling at her in a friendly if off way. Between her uniform and the way she had passed out, his only guess was that she ran away, maybe from one of the plentiful private schools around here. On the streets it was best not to ask questions. She stumbled out to the main streets, leaned against a building, and closed her eyes to breathe deeply, a blood stain on her uniform catching her attention. Ma-Ti. Her last friend. Gone. No, no, she couldn't think about that. She had to focus on where she was. Was this a dream?

The warm covers all around her from her small palace were nowhere to be found. The firm feeling of expensive marble tile was not under her feet. The murmur of the heater could not be heard. This was no dream. But how? The heart ring did not include teleportation. No ring did. She turned from side to side, taking in a sea of people. Voices. English. American accents. She was in the land of her worst enemies, the USSR's worst enemies. Not that there was much difference between herself and the USSR at this point; she was their greatest weapon, now in enemy territory. But not enemy hands. She was still free, still on her feet and breathing. As long as she was alive, she would survive. She just had to get back to the USSR and tell them she had not retrieved the final ring. Turning back to the man in the alley, she asked where she was.

"New York City," he told her, and added, "You feelin' okay? That's a nasty bruise on your neck, girl."

She shrugged. "I've had worse. Thank you."

She started walking, though to where she didn't know. The ES buzzed as she began to walk faster. Her feet carried her to a building she had seen before, decimated and burning to the ground. _He_ had died that night, the American, fighting her and crying. Grabbing her shoulders. Trying to get through to her, to his Linka, not understanding Avifort was in control now. She had used Gi's ring on him, dropping him to the floor coldly and leaving his body to burn. These images flashed before her eyes, as she coldly stared ahead. It couldn't have been rebuilt. There hadn't been enough time. His home looked as if it had never been scratched. The people did not recognize her in the streets. She… she had killed him, hadn't she? She sort of remembered it, or rather remember the victory parade and the joy on her fellow Russian's faces when they had heard she'd killed the American Firebringer, as he was known in the USSR. The actual act was a dim memory, though growing stronger as she grew closer, though still hidden in the shadows.

A familiar figure appeared, followed by several. She felt herself gasp as her eyes went wide. She _knew_ Kwame was dead. She _knew_ Ma-Ti was dead. But there they were, talking to – no, it couldn't be. He was long dead, almost four months now. And they were all different. Older, taller. Kwame was an adult, and the American had to be at least a teenager. Ma-Ti looked as old as she was. The ES screeched within her, crumpling her to the ground. She scrambled to hide behind another alley before she was noticed, as her breathing grew faster and faster. They were dead. They were alive. She was confused and she was listless. Yes. No. Possible. Impossible. There, happening. Not even a logical concept. She clutched at her short hair, head searing with pain that had nothing to do with her ES.

"Well, well, well," a woman's voice snapped her back to reality. "If it isn't the eco-freaks. You're on the wrong side of town, aren't you?"

She was talking to them, the Ma-Ti and Kwame and American boy whose name still escaped Avifort. She had some people at her disposal, gang members by the look of them. The hardened look was something that stayed consistent from St. Petersburg to New York City, after all. There was an awful lot of them, however. They wouldn't be able to make it, she realized with a tinge of panic. Wait, panic – how could she panic? The ES didn't make a sound, worn out from the sight of the other Planeteers. She placed a hand on it and found only a weak pulse. It was damaged somehow, in whatever had brought her here. Avifort turned her focus back onto the woman in pink, whose outfit struck her as familiar.

"We are not here for you," Kwame was saying, "So leave us alone, Dr. Blight."

"And miss this chance to make life so much easier?" Dr. Blight said, her voice resonating in Avifort's core, bringing forth memories from a year ago, a lifetime ago. "Hardly." She gestured to the gang leaders. "Get them."

The familiar sounds flooded her ears. Earth. Fire. Lasers. Where on earth Dr. Blight had gotten lasers for the gang members, she didn't know. But the American did not dare unleash too much of his power for fear of starting a fire that would spread in this dry summer night. Kwame could not hold them off, and Ma-Ti was nothing more than a liability. Avifort watched, unable to move, rooted to the spot. They had their rings. Their rings were on her fingers. It was impossible, yet that hardly seemed to matter anymore in this universe. Her logical mind told her they were enemies of the mother country. She should leave them to die. She had done it once before, after all. It was in her programming. She was a weapon. Weapons killed. The ES started to whirl into action, and she groaned, slamming her hand onto it. She couldn't let them die again.

She ran out onto the street, coat flying out beneath her like a cape, and aimed her right hand at the crowd. For a split second the Planeteers caught sight of her, and their faces were a cloud of confusion, recognition, and hope. The American stood particularly stunned, but she didn't have time to react before programming took over and she raised her other hand as well. Automatically, like a soldier, she called forth her stolen power, and saw all color drain out of Dr. Blight's face as she did.

"Wind, water, earth!"


	3. Chapter 3

They had trained Avifort well in the past year.

Thorough brainwashing had been required. Implanting a ES on human subjects was still a tricky process, and it worked best if the person willingly accepted it. On top of that, she had to be turned away from environmentalism and towards nationalism. She had to be convinced she was helping the people of Russia, and that their livelihood came before the planet's well being any day of the week. Truthfully it hadn't taken much to break her. The gangs, the violence, the pain, the starving masses that would have lost their already lousy jobs if the USSR had lost. Linka was a bleeding heart, and devoted herself to training. She seemed determined to learn how to fight, as if she could single handedly save everyone if only she was strong enough.

The ES produced adrenaline on command, at the cost of lower serotonin production. In anyone else this would have led to depression, but the ES prevented that from happening, allowing seemingly boundless energy for her on command. She was unaware of the strain this was placing on her heart, or how shortened her lifespan had become, merely knowing that right now, surrounded by thugs and criminals, she was fearless. Avifort had been trained to think fast, literally. Her brain processed the situation twice as fast as a non ES brain, and her reaction time reflected that. She dug her heels into the ground, to avoid being blown away by the giant volume of energy she was unleashing.

Wind knocked the criminals off their feet, Dr. Blight excluded, and earth warped the pavement around them. They were soon encased up to their necks. For Dr. Blight, however, it took blasts of water and air to even knock her off her feet. Used to the Planeteers, she braced herself on instinct – something she'd never done in Avifort's universe. Once she'd been knocked down, however, her fate was the same as the others. The whole of it was over in mere seconds. Stunned expressions met Avifort on all sides as Dr. Blight eyed her warily.

"What are you, some kind of super hero?" she spat, struggling against her concrete and asphalt coverings. She eyed the girl warily as she backed away slowly. "I didn't know Gaia had any more Planeteers."

"She doesn't." Avifort said shortly, and turned and ran in what could only be described as a panic.

Dr. Blight was dead. Avifort had done it herself, after obtaining Gi's ring. Tired and annoyed, cold and soaking wet, the girl had snapped. She was sick of enemies of the USSR causing chaos needlessly, and had drowned the woman in the ocean. The screams, thrashing and wild splashing hadn't bothered her even though she knew it should have. It had been the first time the ES had ever kicked in for her. The memory was foggy, clouded by celebrations and a medal and a feast with high officials whose names she couldn't remember. But hadn't it always been that way, a life where the horrors she committed were commended and praise showered upon her?

What would they say to know she had failed them? To know her attempts on the woman's life had been in vain would dishonor her, undermine everything she stood for. She was supposed to be deadly, to be the controlled, human weapon that took no prisoners. Now Dr. Blight was alive, and yet she couldn't kill the woman twice. She found she strangely didn't want to. The desire to see blood that the ES had instilled in her seemed to have dimmed, and she did not want to kill her again, least of all in front of them. They weren't supposed to be here. They were never supposed to see her kill. The USSR had been perfectly clear on that point. In order to get the others to trust her, she was to never kill in front of them. They could never be allowed to see the full effects of the ES, the way it robbed her of that little voice in her head that told her to stop. Panic gave way to training. Avoid, avoid. Run, dodge, jump, leap, hide, circle back. Ten minutes later she was as hidden as she could possibly be from human perceptions.

Gaia, however, was another matter entirely, as the spirit of the Earth appeared before her in an instant. Avifort froze.

Out of all the people she'd let down, from her family to her friends, Gaia was the only one Avifort had not run into after her intensive brainwashing. All she knew was that the world had stopped and wondered, as destruction and chaos began to reign, where Gaia was. Kwame and Wheeler had been utterly confident she would save them from the USSR's global reach. She had not. No one had saved any of them when World War Three ended. They had saved themselves, and hidden by themselves, and died alone at the hands of soldiers, suicide and Avifort. There had been no spirit of the Earth sheltering them at the last second or miraculously destroying the rings before they'd fallen into the wrong hands. The world must have seemed very godless to the Planeteers in those last moments, let down by the one higher power they trusted most.

They trusted her, anyway. Not Avifort, not now, and the girl backed away cautiously, eyeing her as if the spirit might attack. It struck her that she probably could take Gaia in a fight now, and she would not hesitate to do so. Emotions were trickling in, but they could not undo programming. If anyone reached for Avifort's hands right now, they would be killed on the spot. The two of them stared at each other for a long moment.

Finally Gaia smiled gingerly. "Linka, you don't have to fight me. It's okay now."

"You aligned yourself with the USA."

"The USA and Russia are not at war anymore," she said dismissively, and the girl's eyes narrowed. "Not here. This is not your dimension, as you may have guessed from seeing Kwame and Ma-Ti." When the girl nodded hesitantly, Gaia continued, "Here, the war never began, and so I don't have any alliance. I'm just me, Linka. As you are simply you."

That made the girl frown. She was not often thought of, even in her own head, as herself. She was Weapon 0, an operative of the USSR. But Gaia had always struggled with calling people by their titles and countries. She seemed to see them as one group rather than many. Doubtless she was well pleased with this universe (dimension?) wherein the world was not fighting on a grand scale. It was not so pleasant for Avifort. Her entire identity depended on her country. Mentally, she resolved to go back as soon as possible. She was important back there. They needed her. That led to the deduction she must be here for a reason.

"Why am I here?" she asked, and then a thought occurred to her. "Doesn't this mean there will be two Linkas?"

Gaia nodded. "And that would be a problem if the two of you were identical. You're not. I gave the Planeteers here their rings much later – it worked out a lot better." She sighed, expression heavy. "Please, just hear me out. You're here because I want to make up for the past."

"You abandoned us." Avifort stated robotically, nodding.

Gaia looked as if she'd been hit. Mentally she cringed, and she took a deep breath to stable herself. The nightmare of what had happened was hers alone. For there had been many universes, many dimensions wherein there were Planeteers. Most of them worked out well. The ones where all the Planeteers were girls, the ones where they were all male, the ones where they were all poor and even the ones where they were all rich worked out, ultimately. Struggles and close calls whistled by the ears of all of them, but there had always been a common denominator. They had always been in their late teens and twenties. The current Planeteers were the youngest – the youngest surviving, anyway. As time went by Gaia had wondered whether or not her ideas about teams were outdated.

Maybe, she'd thought, it was foolish to carefully make sure everyone was from identical backgrounds. So she'd began to make mixtures in other universes, from all walks of life. Sons of diplomats alongside daughters of third world country farmers. People from democracies and communism. It all worked so well, even when their backgrounds were different, and for a long time everything had flowed smoothly. But then Zarm had chimed in, asking how young a Planeteer could be. In all universes he was bad, evil to the core, and she knew he was being foolish. A Planeteer could not be a child.

Yet Gaia couldn't stop herself. Time after time she wondered, just to herself, whether or not it was possible. Certainly the young team with twelve-year-old Ma-Ti was working out alright. If they could do it with one member, then maybe two? It wasn't ridiculous. At first, anyway – then she began to become obsessed with the concept. There was something beautiful about the idea of children super heroes saving the Earth. And she'd seen many heroes of other universes the same age. They had all worked out well. Certainly there'd been close calls, but still, wasn't it possible that maybe a team of young Planeteers could work?

No, she couldn't possibly experiment like this. She could not let them come into danger for herself. Gaia pushed the thought away, and many Earths went on as she did. The Earths were saved, the universes found peace, the worlds continued on in order. Zarm knew, just as she knew, that all it would take was one world where a major event was changed to ruin them all. In many universes Adolf Hitler had become any number of things, from painter to common solider, and the universes were fine until one of them had become history's famous Hitler. One holocaust created a ripple effect across all of the planets, resulting in every world having a WW2 even if it happened for very different reasons. Zarm tried to tempt various Planeteers knowing this full well, understanding that once one group fell, he would have more. If Gaia created young Planeteers, and something went wrong, then all of the universes would feel it somehow.

But she had gone ahead anyway, and to her horror it had blown up in her face. The USSR went to war with the world, with China as an ally. Though she would never be sure quite what made them snap, she sensed outside influence on Zarm's part in the mix. (Not that she had proof.) Gi was killed on accident, as China reclaimed Korea, Thailand and Japan for itself. It had been like any other raid in history, with just as many accidental causalities. Linka had been turned into Avifort and given Gi's retrieved ring, which set off a chain reaction. Her training had intensified, and just like that she was off doing horrible things with her powers, things that Gaia never intended. She killed Wheeler. Without hesitation she hunted Kwame down like a dog. Everything dissolved into chaos and death as Russia became a superpower to be reckoned with and all other countries merely watched, helpless.

Helpless too had Gaia felt, brushed off by Linka. The ES kept any vision of Gaia from ever reaching the girl, and brainwashing subdued any fond memories she once had. Wheeler had fought at first, against pollution even in wartime and against Avifort. He'd tried to appeal to her humanity, to her sanity. There was none. She had choked him to death on the spot, and immediately gone after Kwame. Kwame had run, fearful for his family. Unfortunately, they would not let him leave, and together as a group they lived in hiding, poorer than ever before and desperate. Only Ma-Ti had been reachable for Gaia right then, the eight year old remarkably compassionate. He hadn't been much help, however, prone to crying and sobbing at each and every news headline. The whole past year in that Earth had been a nightmare.

Zarm had succeeded. The Planeteers had been changed from constantly successful to actually fallible. Just as one universe discovering flight had given most of them flight, now there would be more spin off universes, each more unstable than the last. Whatever his plan was for the off kilter universes – and Gaia was sure he had a plan – it was now in motion, and the only solution to this stood before her. Avifort. If the girl could change, she could change her world, although now many universes would soon endure WW3. That was unavoidable, because it was over and the past couldn't be changed. The future could.

"I made a mistake. But it's not too late to change, for you or for the world." Gaia looked at her solemnly, seeing the stoic creature before her. This was the price to pay for her rashness, the fallout of a mistake when one had the status of Earth spirit. She decided to play into the girl's programming, the logic that now dominated a once unique personality. "You think you're helping Russia, Linka, but the timelines on different Earths are always the same, and pretty soon you'll be fighting someone that all the Planeteers together struggled to stop. I can't even stop him-"

"I have three billion people backing me up," she replied flatly. "The absence of four shouldn't be too hard to compensate for."

"And this someone brought down a planet with nearly sixteen billion people on it," Gaia shot back, continuing passionately, "He won't have any holes in his logic, Linka. With compassion and friends he can be stopped, but you won't be able to stand. No one can stand up to him on their own, because he will tempt you beyond belief, and eventually we all break down on our own. He'll destroy all of Russia, all of the planet, just because it amuses him. Look inside yourself, now – can you really take that chance?"

Could she? It could all be an elaborate ruse to get her on their side again. It could be Gaia just wanted the additional power of four more rings. In fact, to Avifort's brainwashed mind this theory alone held truth. That was the law of things: everyone wanted power. But if this weren't a trap, then that would mean risking Russia. The people, the mothers, and the children, those who threw her parades and took her in without question – they were in danger. She had done everything she had to see to it they did not die, that they were kept safe. Even if this were a trap, she would just have to fight her way out of it, then, because she needed to protect Russia.

Raised the daughter of a diplomat, Boris Avifort, she had never known anything but wealth and love. What she did know of the outside world had been slammed into her after her ring was discovered. She saw the poor, the downtrodden, the starving, those who had lost everyone they loved to the war, and the images burned into her mind. This was all that would remain, she was told, if ever she would fail in her duties as a Weapon. She was all that stood before them and pain. Now she was literally all that stood before them and death. She was the last line of defense for her country. If she didn't stop this oncoming threat, she would be failing. There was no way that she could allow that to happen. She was programmed too well.

"I'll go with you," she told Gaia coolly, "But I cannot guarantee that the others will accept me."

To her surprise, the spirit of the Earth smiled back warmly. "They already have."

With that Gaia drew her into an embrace, only to be cut off by the ES. Although damaged, it functioned. The overload of shock, relief, apprehension, affection, annoyance and conflicting programming booted it into life again. Gaia vanished from Avifort's eyes, not registering the physical touch. Backing away on instinct, she looked around in confusion, like a robot scanning for something. The familiar pain was in her neck, although she did not associate this with Gaia's disappearance. She didn't know that the ES was what had cut her off. No one did. The assumption had been, among government officials and the common person, that Gaia had simply abandoned the Planeteers.

After scanning the alley and finding nothing, she tried to determine where to hide. It was night now, the dead part wherein only desperate thieves and muggers dwell. Not that she couldn't handle them. Any one of the rings would be enough against a common criminal; the Planeteers would hardly be good superheroes with anything weaker. But she was tired, deep down in her body. Her muscles ached from all the chemical changes in her body, a direct result of the ES malfunctions. She had to sleep. It was in her programming. For a moment she longed for a bed, before another sting of pain went through her.

Fortunately she was not a person with excess needs. Her elaborate mini-palace was not needed. She simply levitated up to a roof and dropped onto a flat one, falling asleep on the horribly uncomfortable asphalt. They'd truly made her less than human, Gaia thought as she watched the girl drift off. There wasn't any pride left to her, any sense of self. She didn't do things because she wanted to anymore. Avifort was a robot, a tool that turned off and on like clockwork. With a sharp pang of guilt, Gaia realized it would probably take more than bringing her here to undo her inhumanity. She'd start with destroying the ES altogether. Ma-Ti could do it, and he would do so gladly once he understood what an ES did. Certainly it couldn't do the girl any more harm than had already been done at this point, right?

Poor Gaia.

She had no idea what hell she was about to unleash.


	4. Chapter 4

There was screaming.

Not normal, terrified screams, but full on psychotic anger. The desperate screams of someone trapped in combat against someone who they hated more than there are words to describe – these were the first sounds to reach her ears. The world seemed to be ablaze. Everything was on fire, absolutely everything, and she was breathing hard. There was pain, or flickers of it, as she struggled to realize where she was, who she was. Sweat was pouring off of her, yet she didn't leave. Flames danced around her, casting the world in lights of red and orange. She did not move. Her breathing was ragged through the smoke. She stayed put. She had to, no matter what she felt, because she simply had to, the way others had to breathe or had to eat. It was nature.

The screaming presently grew louder, and she glanced beneath her. It was him, the American. Only here his name was never Wheeler. His parents had died when he was young, soldiers in WW3, and the street hardened boy who ended up living with his grandfather was only know as Aaron. Full name unknown – file information missing. He kicked against her, trying to throw her off. He was screaming her name, but that didn't register. She realized what he was doing only in that he wanted her off of him, and without hesitation leaned in, pressing her full weight onto his throat. The fact that they were friends did not dawn on her. That she had once promised to protect him never even flickered into her mind. Unthinking, she stayed atop of him like a deadweight robot, crushing the life out of him.

He'd cried, staring up at her with nothing short of hate. His lilac eyes glared into hers, betrayed and pained, not from her hands but from her. Her expression was blank, lacking either malice or regret. Several seconds passed before even a hint of emotion came into her eyes. It startled her to realize she was crying too. What was she doing? This was wrong, all wrong. Yet she couldn't tear herself away anymore. The programming overrode all morality. The ES filled her with icy pain until she shivered inside a burning building. She was frozen, unable to pull away until finally Aaron stopped kicking up against her. His arms stopped grappling with hers. His eyes closed. Her eyes closed. The tears kept leaking out. She muttered a vague 'I'm sorry' that no one was there to hear.

The screaming stopped.

She kept up her position, pinning his lifeless body to the floor with her own, until finally the ES was able to get her up and moving. The ring. The ring was what was important. She had to… Avifort had trailed off mid thought, staring at him. Everything was cold as ice. She couldn't move. Was this finally too much for the great USSR's technology? Her eyes shut, and when they opened he was a stranger to her. The easiest way for her to get through this was not to know him, so it made her forget. Those long evenings spent playing and talking about how they'd save the world, their few but hard fights alongside each other, that gentle kiss on the cheek before she'd left for Russia – everything was gone in a flash, buried so deep she couldn't reach it. She could not go on as both Linka and Avifort anymore. It killed off part of her in that moment, turning what could have been the last straw into just another mission.

Then the two of them had ruined her. Ma-Ti Sanchez and Ma-Ti Oaxaca. Their combined powers overwhelmed her, and it all came rushing back to her. Gradually she began to realize that the screams were no longer Aaron's, but her own. She was not in a scorching hot, burning building. There was cool tile, no, crystal, beneath her, smooth and cool. She was shaking, and sweating even though she was cold as ice. Someone was shaking her, talking to her. In a moment of supreme fear she thought she had gone insane and a teen version of her own mother was talking to her.

"Please," the older girl was pleading in Russian, "Stop it!"

Abruptly, Avifort did so, falling limply into her arms, breathing hard. No. _No._ The feeling of skin beneath her hands came flooding back. She had done it. Dear sweet God, she had destroyed him. His last moments played before her eyes even as Ma-Ti talked to her, and she registered him raising his ring. Her hand and mouth worked like lightning. He flew across the room, slammed into a wall and stopped abruptly as Avifort screamed once more, backing up on her hands and knees. Her reflexes could save her mind, however.

It was hard to comprehend what she was thinking, because what she was thinking was fractured, broken, a swirl of words and events. Pain. Hurt. She had killed. She felt skin under her hands even as they clutched at her white-blonde hair so tight it hurt, eyes blurring with tears. She hadn't meant to. Couldn't help herself. It was impulse. It was fantastic. It meant nothing. Guilt so sharp it was like a knife cut through her. The body was so hot to the touch in the scorching building, why was it so real before her eyes even as she knew she wasn't there? Her hands shook. Her eyes shut tight. But it couldn't be blocked out. All she wanted was peace and quiet.

Unfortunately for her, she wasn't going to be having those any time soon, in any dimension.

Was everything supposed to burn so much? She was drenched in cold sweat, crying uncontrollably, shaking like a leaf. She had been Russia's pride. She had enforced horrible rules. The Planeteers were the least of it. The mothers who would never see their children, the children left parentless because of her – the horrors replayed themselves before her eyes, and she crumpled. They were all miserable because of her. Her own people were fine, but what of the others? What of those she had done away with? What of her? Was this what Russia had meant in making her a hero? Quite frankly she'd rather be a nobody on the frozen streets of Moscow than be in her palace in St. Petersburg right now.

The worst was what was happening in Altai Krai. Far from any prying eyes, in deep forests frozen 20 below when the sun was out… Avifort sobbed, trying to regain composure. She had to tell them. She had to warn the Planeteers. If they didn't know, they couldn't stop it. And it would all be her fault, again. How many senseless deaths would she cause? How many people would see the end of all they'd worked for because of her?

But then Ma-Ti uttered that one word, Heart, and she barely felt her head connect to the floor before she was out like a light.

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Altai Krai was not a good place.

It was poorer than ever now, and one of the many parts of Siberia that hadn't been doing that well to begin with. Out here people would sell their children to save themselves. Heck, here the children would sell themselves to screw over their parents. Alcohol, farms and ice. That was all Altai Krai ever was. No one would notice a building here or a missing person there.

The laws had never been well enforced here. Too much distance between people, farms, towns and the few cities had made crime rampant. Don't get caught was the mentality. Here people had no qualms about drinking hard liquor in public and dropping the waste on the side of the road. Nothing mattered. People were worthless unless they could do something for you. You were worthless unless you could do something for them. Everyone clung to money. Days were hard and grueling.

The children were strong. That was one of the two things Altai Krai had never lacked. Children, gold, lead, and prisons. That was the heart of the land now. All money and affluence came from skill in manipulating and using those four things. No one would wonder, here, if a certain group of people were to ask around for street fights. In addition to being amusing to watch, if one was sadistic, they also provided more than a few opportunities to look the children over. The gold and lead took time to process. A few weeks would be needed. The rush job they'd given Linka Avifort could not be redone without massive amounts of cash, something the government couldn't afford. So they waited, and they watched.

They settled on a few specific children. Abused ones would work best – they would have something to fight for. They were desperate. Homeless children were picked, too. They would be too grateful to go against the orders they were given. In the end a variety of children were chosen. Some of them were doomed to die in beta testing. Some of them would die on accident. Some were too naieve to know any better. Some didn't care if they lived or not. Regardless, they were about to be used, like objects instead of people. They were used to that.

Of the surviving, there would be few doubters. There was Viktor, self appointed leader of all he met, always confident and never betraying a background of near deadly physical abuse. His confidence overshot even Wheeler's; it was done on purpose to make him unhesitating. Then there was Tatiana, unfeeling, stoic, not-all-there, barely listening and yet smart as a whip. Something had happened, she thought, involving her and her older brother, though she wasn't sure what. No one cared to probe too deeply into her situation. Alik was the strongest, physically at any rate. Street fighting was his domain. Everyone else just happened to be in his ring. He had fought for so long he didn't remember a time when he'd had a home. Zhori was the only one still truly right in the head. His sense of morality would be a hindrance for his new life, but they needed his common sense and basic logic to save them all. They were the new team, so to speak. The next experiment in a series of bad ideas.

They were all so worthless, so replaceable. There would be other arrogant, tough boys, other unfeeling girls, other brutes without minds, other logical, street hardened children. They were good choices. They were a dime a dozen. Good but not great, worth it but disposable at a moments notice when things went wrong. Without families, homes in most cases, food in all, they were without pride now. Broken. Avifort was a diplomat's daughter. She had to be built up from the moment they caught wind of her. These children never had a shred of hope within them. Life had broken then out here in Siberia, torn them down until they were all bitter, hate filled, angry people who could not be reasoned with. Only Zhori even retained the smallest shreds of humanity, and he was still terrifying to his superiors. Thankfully these nearly psychotic children weren't permanent. They could die, or not, depending on how well they accomplished their next mission.

The Betas were dead. The Alphas were ready. Now all they needed to do was go after their Omega.

Linka.

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Avifort screamed as loud as she could. The effect was immediate, but she slapped Ma-Ti away and bolted for Gaia. Where was Gaia? She hadn't a clue. It hardly matter. Altai Krai. Altai Krai! She was screaming it without knowing, until finally she saw the spirit materialize in front of her. Avifort launched into a full, incomprehensible, rushed, stammering Russian explanation that even Linka didn't understand. She had to warn them before it was too late. Maybe it was too late. She'd never known enough about the other Weapons to know. Avifort could feel her newfound hormones raging out of control. Had she gone insane, or was this ranting and raving what all children did when in a panic?

"What, what, slow down," Linka told her, only to be glared at. "You are here now. You are safe-"

"It's not me we need to worry about, you overly accented dolt!" Avifort raged. "It's you! All of you! All of your Russia, and mine, is in danger."

"From what?" Wheeler asked incredulously. "Gaia said we'd be fine as long as you're here."

Avifort was shaking her head. "You don't understand. That would be true, if I was the only Planeteer on my world, but there are more. There are many more. The rings, they are all faked but for one!" She whipped them off her fingers, holding them at arms length as if they were poisoned. "See, see for yourself!"

The Planeteers gasped. Lead. The rings were cast in lead. The dark gray surrounded all but the too-recently acquired Earth ring. Wind, water and fire were frauds. They had worked so well no one had stopped to question them. No one had paused to check her fingers closely. Avifort herself hadn't even considered telling them before. It was too risky. The mission was in danger. The other Weapons were in danger. She could not endanger them; how many times had she been told how important they were to Russia? She found her ES screaming at her, like a jet taking off inside her brain, yet found she no longer cared. Her navy blue eyes darted from person to person, begging them to understand.

All that was within her begged to go against the operation. The mission. The glorious future of all Russia. Throw it all to Hell and back, it was not worth it. She had to undo it. She had started it, blinding heeding and obeying the orders of her superiors. Getting the ES, willingly being brainwashed, being used like a weapon. She'd agreed to all of it, even when she knew she shouldn't have. She was nothing more than a puppet in this. Avifort had handed them the ammunition. She might as well have put a bullet through the heads of all the free world. The others would be picked person by person, trained, strong, better than her. They would be true monsters with true power. But she could stop this, right?

Gaia's crestfallen, horrified face told her that no, she couldn't. If she could she would have to fight for it. Still, she couldn't leave it at this. She had to explain it, explain herself, explain it all. The words tumbled out, uncontrollably, the ramblings of a scared and desperate child and the excuses of a demented and wrong adult all in one.

"They had me hand it over. Altai Krai has so many factories, and gold, lead, jewels, wealth, poverty. They're doing it there. I let them. I didn't think to say no. They made me these, and they're making more. Not for me. For _them_. Lead rings don't stop working when the world is polluted. I didn't know. I didn't even begin to know until I got briefed in Africa, and by then it was too late. I was too far away." She realized she was visibly shaking, her knees and hands especially. "I didn't mean to, Gaia. Can we… can we stop them?"

Gaia bit her lip, considering. "I can't just strike them down, Avifort. They're innocent children, and I'm afraid I physically can't do much to them. It's like how the sun can't stay in the sky forever. It's just not possible."

Weakly, half referring to herself, she whispered, "Can we save them?"

She felt a hand on her shoulder. Linka. What she would've been if hadn't gone wrong. Her sister in the spirit. Was this what it would have been like for her, so optimistic and wonderfully strong looking? This Linka looked tough, invincible, but not ruthless like Avifort. Avifort's military short hair was practically white and permanently seemed to smell of blood. Linka was a long haired pretty girl who seemed to be beaming down on her. For a moment, the younger girl felt her heart ache. This is how life could have been, if she hadn't been so monstrous. Before she knew it, tears were tumbling down her cheeks as she clung to Linka tightly, whimpering in Russian that she'd never meant for it to happen.

"Nyet, nyet, listen to me," the older blonde said softly, smiling down on her. Avifort looked up at her with tired, solemn eyes. "You have done many things, but this I don't think you can be blamed for. This whole thing, I am thinking, is not your fault. It is what you were made to be. It is not who you are. You want to know if we can save them? Yes, I think we can. But more than anything I think you need to save yourself first."

Numbly, the girl stared up at her as if Linka had lapsed into a foreign tongue she didn't comprehend. "How do I do that? I did so much damage…"

Wheeler grinned widely at her. "Then start by doing what Planeteers were meant to do: help people out!"

She stared vacantly at him. Help… people? She had done that. It seemed like a lifetime ago. It felt as if she were millions of miles away from that helpful, giggling little kid. Had she ever done this before? Had she ever talked to her dimension's Wheeler, her precious Aaron, and felt sand beneath her feet as the sun shone? She wanted to believe that she had, that the fairytale was real. She wanted the nightmare to fade. Those nights of death and standing in burning buildings as everyone's lives turned to ash refused to leave her mind. She had strangled someone, shot people at point blank range. Kwame's death still made her want to puke thinking about it. Avifort was a monster. But maybe she could become something in spite of that. Maybe it wasn't too late for her after all. She wasn't happy about what she'd done. That was a start, right? That meant she wasn't all gone. Maybe there was a piece of Linka still left in Linka Avifort.

For the first time in weeks, she smiled, although weakly, and looked at Wheeler with something akin to hope in her eyes.

"When do I begin?"


	5. Chapter 5

AN: Not as long as I'd like, but I'm back up and working on this story again, so at least there's that.

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Gaia had once said the power came from within the Planeteers.

That was true, to a point. They had to believe in themselves for the powers to work. They had to be feeling something. Apathy was not an option for them. But they weren't the only people in existence with those powers. There had always been aquakinetics, terrakinetics, pyrokinetics, aerokinetics and empaths. At the start of society, it had been absolutely necessary to have some super powers out and about. Humanity needed a push to keep them alive. Evolution was helped along by Gaia's little addition. Then, as time had gone by, their powers had slowly been less and less needed. Fewer people had them, or incentive to use them. It became commonly believed that no one really could do that sort of thing. So their access to their own mental powers was cut off, like a door swinging shut. It happened in almost every dimension, save one where powers caused a planetwide war Gaia was in no mood to repeat. So though she could have awoken people's powers, she wisely decided to only let a few people in on the secret.

The Planeteers were the only ones who retained enough belief in powers to use them. The rings were focal points, magnifying glasses to help them use and control what they had. This was why people should only have one. Multiple rings would mean multiple powers. Too much power corrupted people, even good and honest people. In Avifort's fumble, the doorway to their mental powers had opened. Though she was teetering on the edge of madness, the other children were not. Those children in Altai Krai would have no reason not to believe they could move mountains, control the ocean, command the wind, rage like an inferno. Their powers were no stronger than the Planeteers, but it wasn't the power in and of itself. It was the lack of limitations that worried Gaia. They'd never been told they could only use their abilities for particular reasons or causes. They'd never been told they couldn't do something. They were like walking time bombs. There was nothing they couldn't do with enough incentive and need. Being soldiers, that meant any day now they would have the need for intense power. There was nothing she could do to stop them from their own self defensive instincts protecting them.

There were other powers out there. If one of them tried, they might discover a few. It was a frightening idea, not knowing what these children could do. Would they go out to be murderers, or had their ES units not taken hold yet? Did they even have ES units installed? They had desperation fueling them, which was the most basic human emotion; maybe they were still in tact emotionally. That was no guarantee that this would go well, however. Firstly, desperation bred corruption just as much as power. They needed to accomplish their mission come hell and high water. They had no other purpose. This was all they were, all their purpose would ever be. Humans often abandoned morals when it was do or die time. Wheeler had shared an American proverb with her once, that character is what you are in the dark. It didn't get much darker than this.

And secondly, even removing an ES wasn't working out well. She wasn't suffering adverse physical effects - she was healthier than she had been in a long time. But Avifort was not functioning well without it. Even simple choices like water or juice baffled her. She didn't smile, and didn't seem to know how to react to jokes and gestures. Social skills had been destroyed. Speaking was minimal and spontaneous. Interaction was just pitiful. Watching everyone through hazy, dark blue eyes, she often resorted to standing in corners or leaving the room entirely when too many people were involved. If she had to stay put, too much talking overloaded her. She couldn't think. Arms wrapped around herself, she would sit or stand motionless until released, and run for the nearest bedroom. Her stomach twisted at the familiarity of everyone in the room. They were all supposed to be dead, and here they were. Everything was so complicated. There was too much going on for her mind to process anymore without the ES's soothing effects. She was lost in the world, and Gaia wasn't sure if she would ever recover.

Since the other, false Planeteers were in another dimension, time didn't matter. Time did not flow the same way in all dimensions. Avifort could be here as long as she needed to regain her sanity. What Gaia had greatly underestimated was how long it was she needed. Avifort did not answer to her name for a week. She had violent, horrific nightmares that she woke up from screaming and drenched in sweat. She was often depressed, crying even if she didn't know why. Worst of all were those times where she would quietly curl up, replaying in her minds eye all that had happened. Overcome with guilt and self loathing, she had thus far reacted to those horrible, haunting emotions by withdrawing farther and farther from people. Their faces reminded her of what she had done and how far she had fallen. Wheeler was the worst to her. His mere presence made her go so silent and still she looked dead on her feet.

Sending her out with the others wasn't helping. She wasn't used to teamwork. She didn't like teamwork. She felt the instintual need to be a one girl solution to everything. She was great at that. Avifort was well trained and well practiced. In a pinch, she was easily able to fight off villains one on one. The problem was that, when the villains were gone, the fires put out, and the oil cleaned, she was lost. Avifort was a tool in her own mind. Even if she had made the intellectual decision to go against the Russian government, she wasn't emotionally ready for life outside that government. Outside her little palace, she seemed terribly out of place in the world. Although she would talk to Linka and sometimes Ma-Ti, in public she froze. It had taken everything in her to tell them about the false rings. Now her bravery was used up, leaving her lost and lonely even in a crowd. People reacted badly to her, this short-haired, scarred-skinned girl who never spoke. Even friends of the Planeteers found her odd at best and intimidating at worst. Avifort could feel herself being stared at, gossipped about, mocked. Their gazes burned at her. They were right to love the other Planeteers and not her. She didn't deserve this. Not after what had happened.

It was hard not to scream sometimes. Linka was so much more perfect. She was so much better, in every way. She laughed lightly, she joked, and she smiled. Her blushes and fumblings came so naturally and were accepted with ease. Avifort was so artificial, in body and in mind, people were never accepting. Linka was different. She was natural. She didn't feel this numbing, all consuming void of guilt and self hatred deep inside. She didn't even know what pain was, what true loss was. Sure, Linka had lost a cousin. But she hadn't choked the man. She hadn't seen her best friend shoot himself through the head. She hadn't seen Ma-Ti's body hit the ground. She had goodness in her. She had just made a mistake. Privately, Avifort thought that what she had done personally made her less than a person. She was going to Hell, and she had earned every second of it. She _was_ hell incarnate. She was a monster. And this Linka, this perfect girl who was genetically a cousin was as far removed from Avifort as the sky was from the ground. If the younger girl could've cried, she would have. Instead she felt the insane urge to scream. This wasn't fair. If she'd just been given a chance, she wouldn't have become this. She would've been Linka. She wanted to be Linka. Linka was _perfect_.

Yet she couldn't scream. She couldn't even put words to the whirlwind inside her. It was so hard just to live, to breathe, to see the all too familiar faces around her. Every step was an effort, every moment awake was a nightmare just as bad as what her mind produced. The only times she managed to even think about what had happened was when, alone in her room, the tears suddenly flowed out of nowhere, unceasing until she was sick. Gaia was worried. Linka was worried. They were all worried. But she couldn't tell them what was wrong. They were all convinced she was going to be okay. Avifort knew she wasn't, the way other people knew the sun would rise. Deep inside, something was unhinged now.

There could be no forgiveness for what she had done. She had become so dark that there was no light, no love, no compassion within her. Aaron, her best friend, her closest confidant, the boy she secretly loved more than anyone else in the world, was dead. Because of her. Because of what she was. She had allowed herself to become this hellish, unrecognizable weapon. Even he, with his big heart and goofy smile that he'd always kept up in spite of his background... Even he wouldn't forgive her of this. She didn't deserve it. She wouldn't ever be able to undo what she'd done. She couldn't bring back the dead or become the Linka she should have been. The others didn't understand what she'd done, or they'd hate her as much as she hated herself. It occured to her, lying awake, staring at the dark ceiling above her, that she would have to earn any forgiveness she would get for what she'd done. She would have to set things right by herself, and probably die and kill people trying. Honestly, it probably wouldn't work, she thought as she got up and began to change her clothes. The whole venture was a longshot. She'd be better off if she called in the other Planeteers and took their route of sanity and a fair fight. But she would only be better off in the odds. Inside, she would still be broken. She had always been broken, for as long as she remembered, by the government and public opinion and brainwashing and the ES. As she buckled the bright red buckles on her pitch black USSR uniform, Avifort came to the conclusion that sometimes what was statistically the most feasible wasn't the right decision to make. Yes, calling in the other Planeteers and going off to Altai Krai would have been the smart thing to do.

But this, she thought as she rushed off silently, into the dead of night, was the _right_ thing to do.

And that was all that mattered.


End file.
